the.com/coke
A plant's defense mechanism became capitalism's favorite shortcut.
means A solid carbon fuel made by baking coal (or heating it without air) until the gases and tars cook off, leaving a hard, hot-burning residue used in smelting iron and steel.
from Uncertain root — the word surfaces in English in the 1500s-1600s, likely from a northern English dialect word (possibly related to Old English-descended words for 'core' or the cindery remains of something burned), originally describing the cinder-like leftover of any combustion before it narrowed to mean the coal-derived industrial fuel. Its slang life as a nickname for cocaine is unrelated in meaning — just a shorthand clipping of the drug's name — though the two senses amusingly collide in everyday speech.
- origin
- Coca leaves, chewed by Andean cultures for millennia first
- peak absurdity
- Was legally in Coca-Cola until 1903
- economics
- Price per gram barely changed in 40 years
- other meaning
- Also just coal baked until it's pure carbon